One of the hidden joys of being an entrepreneur is that people are very curious about my profession and what it is like to work at a startup. People have a ton of questions around my industry – robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) and often ask me “exactly what is the difference between them?”

I write this post from under luxurious white bedding that is pure bliss. Pillows nestle my head gently as morning light streams softly through a window. It’s the best kind of magic… and then I’m reminded of someone.

Earlier this week I had lunch with Michelle, an entrepreneur I advise. She is the CEO/Co-Founder of a SaaS startup. She had just launched the beta of her platform with a well-known retailer. The launch had gone well, yet she looked more exhausted than excited. I asked her how she was doing and, not surprisingly, she said, “I’m tired!”

She is not alone. As part of a team of four working round the clock to accomplish the herculean task of a product launch, she has had to accomplish an incredible, a near-impossible task. And due to the company’s small size and scrappy funding, she’s had time for nothing else. The strain is apparent throughout the team. The technical co-founder’s new bride complains about the lack of quality time with her new husband. The sales co-founder’s girlfriend has even threatened to move out. And let’s not forget the basics, like eating and sleeping—or lack thereof. These functions tend to go out the door when a start-up’s ramping up.

Poor sleep is a common problem among entrepreneurs; trust me, I know! Even if lights go out by 10pm, I’ll often wake up in the middle of the night, roused by some problem, and proceed to answer emails till 4am. I can relate to what Michelle is going through, yet experience (I’m now on my fourth startup) has taught me if you work all the time, don’t eat well and don’t exercise, both you and your startup will pay the price!

That means you have to fight to gain some “me” time, with the same vigor as you fight for your business. So go on a date! Spend time with your family. Go cycling or hiking or out to dinner or play with your dogs--do something completely unrelated to your startup. Splitting your time between work and your life will result in higher productivity. And don’t assume leaving the office won’t benefit the work, either. There is always going to be a mountain of tasks to do, 24-hrs/day 7 days/week. Taking a couple of hours for yourself and your family can actually help you tackle it. Distance from business issues can help you gain clarity; you’ll likely get a new perspective on a problem, all while recharging your batteries. Both you and your team will be happier for it.

So at your next party or function, ask an entrepreneur to describe the best sleep they ever had. And you'll see. They’ll readily recount—in almost lascivious detail—how amazing it was! The pillow’s plaint softness, the mattress’ comfortable support, the blanket’s enfolding warmth… they’ll probably wax poetic on air quality and location, too.

That’s right, to the ambitious entrepreneur, sleep is the new sex. So go get some.

Recently, I went to pitch a few investors about my new startup, a stealth robotic venture. I was pumped. We have a dream team, a large market opportunity, and are tackling a problem that is tailor made for my background and skill set.

We start pitching. I launch into a brief overview of my work history, confident in the story since my first startup, Neato Robotics, is a great achievement from both a technical and sales perspective. The pitches went well and we closed a round of funding quickly, but I discovered something odd—whenever I mentioned Neato, blank looks would stare back at me from around the meeting table.

Seriously? You don’t know…? Neato Robotics is the number two player in the robotic vacuum cleaning market. So why doesn’t anyone I meet ever know about it?

Neato makes an awesome product, the Botvac, a superior product to the leading autonomous vacuum, iRobot’s Roomba (as attested to here and here and here). Neato vacs sell at Best Buy, Costco, Target, and can be found on Amazon and many other stores all over the world.

Okay, iRobot was already a Goliath when I co-founded Neato, but I wasn’t deterred; I’d be the roboDavid to this Goliath. I was inspired by the flaws I saw in the Roomba to form a company that would develop a superior product through superior technology - a vacuum that would know where it had cleaned in a room and where it still needed to travel to complete its job - compared to the Roomba which did not contain this intelligence. iRobot was first to market, sure, but I was certain we could crush them. Our product could self navigate a room, had a bigger dustbin, could maneuver into corners and travel closely along baseboards; our product also had more suction and vacuum power than a Roomba. How could we not win over the Roomba, which just bounced around randomly and whose round shape kept it from sucking up those pesky dust bunnies in the corners of the room? Sure, iRobot had deeper pockets, an exponentially larger team and a hefty TV advertising budget, but Neato was a superior product. Shouldn’t this be enough?

Here’s what I’ve learned: Nope, it wasn’t enough. It’s actually really hard to overtake the first to market. iRobot created a perception in consumer minds that proved hard to break. Consumers tend to believe that the market leader is the superior brand. Learn from this. Get into your customer’s minds as hard and fast as you can, preferably before the competition does. And make sure you build a kick-ass technology while doing so. You’ll have a lot of extra work to do on the back end if you miss this golden opportunity. And hey, you might come in silver anyway… but silver isn’t gold.

I haven’t forgotten this lesson. My stealth robotics venture has no rivals that I can see. It will be first on the market, if I can help it.

Several months ago I read a comment on twitter by a female entrepreneur about how she was beta testing the outfits she would wear when pitching to VCs. She was methodically working her way through a rigorous matrix of choices: Skirt? Slacks? Oxford? Dress? Did black perform better than bright colors? Which was the optimal combination?

To date, I raised funding for four startups, including $12 million for Neato Robotics at a time when hardware was less than popular to venture capitalists. It’s a given that you shouldn’t smell bad or be dirty at a pitch (or anytime, for that matter). But smelling good isn’t going to seal the deal. Getting funding comes down to three things: team (can the VC can work with this entrepreneur and his/her team, especially if times are rough?), market (is this entrepreneur’s idea at the cusp of a large opportunity?), and fit (will this company/idea integrate with the fund’s ethos?). If you have these three ingredients, it won’t matter if you have no make-up on and are wearing jeans and a tee instead of a dress and heels--the investor will engage.

By all means wear what makes you confident. Spiff yourself up if that’s what you need to get the job done. Most importantly, be yourself, but make sure you’ve got the tools you need to properly engage those VCs interested in your ideas and vision. The VC isn’t investing in your clothes, or your appearance; they’re investing in you.

My favorite place to eat is in restaurant kitchens. If I can score a seat at the chef’s table, it’s two thumbs up for me. I’d always eat back there if I could. I’d like kitchens to have a “standing room only” option at a table somewhere in the back of the house, the way theaters do.

A restaurant’s back of the house is analogous to theater in other ways, too. A well run-kitchen operates almost like a ballet—a precision dance of preparing, plating, and pushing food through the line. I love watching the choreography of it, hearing the music blasting and the occasional “FUCK! Where did they put the spoons!” from a disgruntled manager trying to keep everything on track.

The front of the house is all about a quiet, tasteful experience. You rarely hear the staff grumble or curse. It’s so much more real and present back where things are coming together.

In the back, I can also see my food being prepared before I eat it—another plus! This raises my expectations. When you eat in the front of the house, particularly if you order a tasting menu, you have no idea what is about to come to your plate. My way, watching each course being prepared, you get to salivate in anticipation.

I love the whole busy, time-tested, hectic but regimented show. As a former operations person who has spent a lot of time on manufacturing house floors, I am fascinated by how restaurant kitchens feel similar to the way I think a 1950’s factory floor would be. Not much has changed in the kitchen from that time, either. Pop a WWII-era chef into one of today’s kitchens, and I bet he would know exactly what to do and how to operate most of the equipment. A microwave or a sous-vide might puzzle him, and he’d likely admit that a robot-coupe would benefit from an update, but the rest would suit him perfectly. But that’s all secondary to any skilled chef julienning vegetables or searing a steak to perfection. That is the timeless spectacle, and like any good piece of theater, something not to miss.